Most of us "superusers" are regularly asked to fix computers for friends or family. To improve my chances of repairing a PC (or at least recovering important data) on the spot, I would like to assemble a portable kit of hardware and software tools that I can keep in my car.
What would you put in your "computer repair toolkit"?
One tool per answer please, so that the best tools can be voted to the top.
It's a tool that will scrub your hard disk, bypassing all the built-in mechanisms to repair sectors on the disk. It can fix many a hard disk that would otherwise be toast because of a few bad sectors here and there, and will in most cases help recover files. (I've personally never seen DynaStat working, but I guess that makes me lucky.)
SpinRite can run on any PC compatible system with a 32 or 64-bit Intel or AMD processor and a color screen. The previous SpinRite v5.0 is available to v6.0 owners who need to run SpinRite on older 16-bit 8086/80286 systems and/or monochrome screens.
SpinRite is self-contained, including its own bootable FreeDOS operating system. It can be used on any operating system and any file system. This means it can run on drives formatted with Windows XP's/Vista's/Windows 7's NTFS and all other older FAT formats (in addition to all Linux, Novell, and all other file systems.) It can be used to pre-qualify and certify unformatted hard drives before their first use. Drives on non-PC platforms, such as Apple Macintosh or TiVo, may be temporarily relocated to a PC motherboard for data recovery, maintenance and repair by SpinRite.
SpinRite provides complete interaction with IDE-interface PATA (parallel ATA) and SATA (Serial ATA) drives, and it can also be used with any other type of drive — SCSI, USB, 1394/Firewire — that can be made visible to DOS through the addition of controller BIOS or add-on DOS drivers. To obtain the best performance, IDE drives can be temporarily removed from their external USB or Firewire cases and attached directly to the PC motherboard.
A tiny USB key on my keyring full of portable apps.
The portable apps include:
My laptop, if that counts. 80% of the time I'm troubleshooting network issues, so I'd rather use a tool that I'm positive works.
A bootable Ubuntu CD.
Whatever happens to the operating system you're working on, if (for example) you need to access the Internet to download a driver, just pop in the CD and do what you need to.
Along the way you might even convince your family or friends that Linux is quite user-friendly nowadays...
My (physical) weapon of choice is something MacGyver would recommend, the indispensible Swiss Army Knife. Except the one I always keep in laptop bag is an updated 21st century incarnation of tool, Victorinox Swiss Army Cybertool 29 Pocket Tool:
It has saved me on countless occassions, not just computer related.
The cybertool is literally an entire self contained toolbox unto itself.
And the software equivalent of the Swiss Army Knife I carry along always is Damn Small Linux:
CCleaner. Is freeware.
Its primary purpose is to remove unnecessary files: in the recycle bin, memory dumps, file fragments, log files, system caches, application data (like cached files in Opera). And the Registry Cleaner can locate and correct problems in the Windows Registry. It can be used to disable start-up programs.
I always have a bootable USB-stick containing SystemRescueCd in my backpack. It's one of those "Linux Live CDs", but one that is packed full of relevant rescue/recovery tools.
It only needs a 512 MB stick, which everyone probably still has lying around idle in a drawer somewhere (notes for installing to a USB-stick are here, and if you have trouble getting it to boot, you might look here).
A SATA/IDE-to-USB adapter. For a great variety of problems, it's a great help to be able to pull the harddisk out of the system to hook it up to your laptop...
The model in my repair kit is this one, but there are plenty like it. These things don't require any drivers on any OS I've come across in the last 4 years; they're just plain Mass Storage Devices.
HijackThis™ is a free utility which quickly scans your Windows computer to find settings that may have been changed by spyware, malware or other unwanted programs. HijackThis creates a report, or log file, with the results of the scan.
A smart-phone with 3G Internet access and the ability to share that Internet access over Wi-Fi. Great for googling network/Wi-Fi problems :-)
Hardware:
Repair-related Software: (Kept on a flash drive)
Crimping tool & connectors and spare wire. I've seen too many cases where people break off the locking tabs off of RJ-45 and RJ-11 connectors and the plugs start to fall out.
Get/make yourself a boot CD in conjunction with a USB key of SysInternals Apps/NirSoft Apps/PortableApps. I use BartPE (freeware) to get it exactly how I want it. Alternatively, you could use a Linux boot CD or whatever you're most comfortable with.
Something to access laptop HDD's on "dead" laptops.
Like http://www.cooldrives.com/saandidehadr1.html, a SATA/IDE-to-USB adapter.
It's invaluable to have as it's a problem that arises more often then you would think.
I don't actually do this. But for hardware troubleshooting purposes, I'd love to have good working hardware. Motherboard, PSU, cabling, memory modules, etc. That would make life so much easier
An XP account cracker.
Burnt onto a bootable CD, VERY useful for people who forget their administrator account passwords.
Cough COUSIN Cough
Well, I just found this... but you might be interested to review my web page on the topic - www.lwcomputing.com/tips/static/techtoolkit.asp
(I'll definitely review the items here to see if anything posted is missing...)
If I know I'm going to be fixing a computer I'll try to take some bigger things along:
on my BartCD (a bootable USB stick actually) i have the following:
WinHex - the ultimate in data recovery
Partition Table Doctor & Test Disk/PhotoRec
SIW & CPU-Z
Ghost, DIXML and Drive Snapshot
HDD Regenerator
Unstoppable Copier
Total Commander
InfraRecorder
Sysinternals Suite
... and other more or less useful stuff
i still carry a few CDs with me, such as Knoppix, SysClone, Administrator's Pak/ERD Commander SpinRite, NT Offline password editor.
